After six years of written interviews and stories and blog posts and one year of podcasting, it’s time to close the book on TheBicycleStory. I launched this project on Nov 1. 2010 with an interview with Stevil Kinevil. I wasn’t sure exactly what the path forward would be for the site, but the late 2000s bike culture boom was reaching its peak and there were a seemingly endless number of fascinating characters in thebike world about whom I wanted to know more. Luckily, it turned out there were lots of readers who were also interested in the lives of bike racers, adventurers, advocates, industry insiders, dirt bags and wild women and men.

When I launched the podcast last year, my intentions were threefold: breath some new life into the site, give myself an opportunity to experiment with podcasting, and create a revenue-generating product. The first two items were grand successes. The latter, much less so. In order for podcast sponsorship to work, the podcast needs a fairly large listenership. My hope was to sustain the podcast through listener support via Patreon pledges while building up a sponsorship-worthy audience. Unfortunately neither really happened. There were a handful of extremely generous listeners who made pledges and helped keep the project going for as long as it did. I am eternally grateful for their kindness and support! But ultimately the Patreon base and the overall audience remained fairly stagnant over time and never reached the sort of sustainability I needed.

I realize this might sound like sour grapes, but I promise you it’s not! I recognize there were plenty of things I did (or didn’t do) to help the podcast reach its full potential. More importantly, I am deeply humbled and have nothing but gratitude for all TheBicycleStory’s readers and listeners and supporters and interviewees over the years. It’s been a fantastic and satisfying ride.

Though there won’t be any new interviews or episodes on TheBicycleStory from here on out, the site will remain online. You can help me offset hosting costs (and clear out my closet!) by picking up a BicycleStory tee from the shop. They’re deeply discounted right now and shipping is free anywhere in the U.S.

So once again, thank you to all the amazing people who shared their stories over the years. And thank you to all the readers and listeners for your support. TheBicycleStory could not have existed without you.

All my best,
Josh

Note: This post originally appeared on the site on December 14, 2016, but a hacker got in and messed things up, so I’m reposting.

Steve “Doom” Fassbinder is a bad-ass adventurer who combines mountain biking, rock climbing, and pack rafting to explore deep into desert, mountain, and coastal wilds. His trips require the sort of endurance and suffering that tend to either leave you in awe or scratching your head wondering why. Steve and I talked about his motivations to keep pushing his personal limits, as well as how he got into this sort of adventuring in the first place, his proudest moments, balancing risk and reward, teaching the next generation of adventurers, and a whole lot more.

Tamika Butler is the Executive Director of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition. She’s only been working in bike advocacy for two years, but she’s already made a big impression on the national bike advocacy world, in large part because of her contribution to the conversation and work around equity, inclusion and intersectionality.

The Bicycle Story podcast is made possible because of listener donations. Make a pledge today to The Bicycle Story Patreon to help keep the show going!

Amanda Batty is a professional mountain bike racer and sometimes freelance writer. A little over a year ago she was embroiled in controversy after calling out a colleague for using a date rape metaphor in his review of a new bike. The fall out was swift and ugly and put Amanda on the receiving end of harassment and death threats. We spoke about her racing life, attempt to break into the highest levels of downhill racing, and the pervasive problem of rape culture and misogyny in the bike industry and culture at large.